Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report

In The News

Washington Post: Obama and African leaders to discuss U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS
“When African leaders arrive in Washington this week to meet with President Obama, one of the most politically sensitive issues expected to be discussed is the future of the U.S. commitment to global efforts to deal with HIV/AIDS. … Congress is still debating the program’s allocation for fiscal 2015, a situation that has created deep concern among some health officials and activists in Africa…” (Cha, 8/2).

Reuters: Official – Billions of dollars in deals and funding to be announced at Africa summit
“The United States will announce nearly $1 billion in business deals, increase funding for peacekeeping, and commit billions of dollars to expanding food and power programs in Africa during a summit this week, U.S. and development officials say…” (Wroughton, 8/3).

News outlets discuss how the current outbreak of Ebola may factor into the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit opening today in Washington, D.C.

Foreign Policy: Ebola Outbreak Unlikely To Feature Heavily At White House Africa Summit
“Amid a host of global crises, next week’s Africa Summit, a White House effort to encourage business initiatives in Africa and foster security cooperation with the continent, has not garnered much hype in the leadup. But the Ebola outbreak in West Africa changed that on Friday, when President Barack Obama discussed it in a wide-ranging press conference after two Americans contracted the disease…” (Groll, 8/1).

The Hill: Ebola fears swirl around US-Africa summit
“A widening outbreak of deadly Ebola fever is threatening to overshadow next week’s summit between African leaders and President Obama. The three-day conference will bring nearly 50 African officials to Washington, D.C., for an unprecedented gathering that officials said could be a turning point in U.S.-Africa relations…” (Viebeck, 8/3).

The Hill: Obama: US-Africa summit guests to get Ebola screenings
“President Obama said Friday that visitors from Africa who might have contracted the Ebola virus will receive health screenings at a U.S.-Africa summit next week. Obama said his administration will take extra precautions at the Washington, D.C., event, where the White House will host nearly 50 African leaders from around the continent…” (Viebeck, 8/1)

Reuters: Obama says some at African summit will undergo Ebola screening
“President Barack Obama said on Friday that the United States takes risks from the deadly Ebola virus very seriously and that some participants at an Africa summit taking place in Washington will be screened for exposure…” (8/2).

Reuters: Ebola distracts from worsening Cameroon cholera outbreak
“A cholera epidemic in northern Cameroon has killed at least 65 people and probably infected about 1,300 people in two months, as international attention has been diverted to fighting Ebola in West Africa, health experts said on Saturday…” (Hussain/Mussa, 8/2).

U.N. News Centre: U.N. warns of ‘rapidly unfolding’ health disaster in Gaza
“Weeks of intense fighting has left medical services and facilities in the Gaza Strip ‘on the verge of collapse,’ according to senior United Nations officials in the region who today warned that a health disaster of widespread proportions is rapidly unfolding as the conflict grinds on…” (8/2).

News outlets report on the WHO’s recommendation to change anti-gay laws and the Ugandan Constitutional Court’s decision to strike down the country’s anti-gay law.

Washington Blade: World Health Organization urges law changes
“The World Health Organization said this week that nations should use changes in law to stop the spread of AIDS by removing obstacles to HIV prevention, Erasing 76 Crimes, a blog that reports on anti-gay laws around the world, reports…” (8/1).

Science Magazine: Uganda court strikes down anti-gay law opposed by scientists
“An anti-gay law passed earlier this year in Uganda despite the protests of activists and scientists has been nullified by one of the nation’s courts, which ruled that the legislation had been improperly approved by the country’s Parliament…” (Travis, 8/1).

BBC News: HIV drugs ‘boost South African life expectancy’
“Life expectancy in South Africa has increased dramatically over the last decade, mainly thanks to life-saving AIDS drugs, a government report says…” (8/1).

News outlets report on World Breastfeeding Week, which takes place August 1-7.

AllAfrica/South Africa News: South Africa: Breastfeeding Week Gets Underway
“As World Breastfeeding Week kicks off today, the Department of Health [in South Africa] has encouraged families, communities, and employers to provide a supportive environment for mothers to breastfeed…” (8/1).

U.N. News Centre: Simple, smart, cost-effective, breastfeeding provides benefits that last a lifetime — U.N.
“The best thing a mother can do for her newborn is breastfeed — which does more than help children survive, it helps them to thrive with benefits that last a lifetime, said the United Nations today, kicking off World Breastfeeding Week…” (8/1).

VOA News: Breastfeeding Improves Health of Babies
“Friday marked the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated in more than 170 countries every year from August 1-7 to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies…” (8/2).

Reuters: Ramadan pilgrimage season in Saudi Arabia mostly free from MERS
“Saudi Arabia reported 10 confirmed new cases of a deadly respiratory disease during Islam’s fasting month of Ramadan, and subsequent Eid al-Fitr holiday, after fears that an influx of pilgrims over the period might spread the infection more widely…” (McDowall, 8/3).

SciDev.Net: Dengue vaccine is just a year away, researchers say
“A new vaccine that can halve the number of dengue cases provides a welcome shot to fight a deadly disease that infects around 390 million people every year in the tropics. Sanofi Pasteur, the pharmaceutical company that sponsored the development of the vaccine, has announced that it will be commercially available by July 2015…” (Law, 8/2).

NPR: Helping Children, Despite Death Threats: A Vaccinator Explains
“…Being a front-line health worker usually isn’t controversial. But in Pakistan, it can get you killed. The Taliban went on an offensive against polio immunization in 2012 after it became clear that the CIA used a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign to gather intelligence on Osama bin Laden…” (Beaubien, 8/3).

Editorials and Opinions

An editorial and opinion pieces discuss reactions to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The Guardian: The Guardian view on Ebola and the need for new drugs
“…There is rightly an international effort to help the victims of Ebola in medical centers near the affected zones. That means… investing in research for an antidote for a disease that is not an obvious threat outside West Africa. … Deadly viruses challenge convention everywhere. … [M]any of these newer viral infections are so lethal and kill their victims so fast that the epidemic peaks and subsides before a drug treatment can be rolled out. The innovative solution put forward by the Wellcome Trust is to change the protocol so that a new drug, if it had passed the earlier phases of safety and efficacy, could be used in the course of a real epidemic without the normal phase 2 trials on humans. That would require a big leap in trust. For that reason alone, trialling a new drug during an epidemic in Africa would look damagingly exploitative. But it may be that the most sensible response to the Ebola outbreak there is to prepare new protocols to fight every virus faster and more vigorously here” (8/1).

The Guardian: Ebola has infected public discourse with a new xenophobia
Lola Okolosie, contributor

“…Four months ago Ebola looked like yet another far-off possibility not worth worrying about. The disease’s quiet rampage in the distant forests of West Africa went largely unnoticed. It is only now, with the possibility of Ebola reaching us via the next flight in, that we realize how interconnected we are. In the age of diaspora and globalization, it is ridiculous to think that we are, or could be, a fortress” (8/4).

Washington Post: What we need to fight Ebola
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota

“…What happens if the response to and management of this outbreak don’t shift? The fear and panic are growing each day, with new areas reporting cases and more health-care workers dying. If it continues, West Africa could become politically and economically destabilized. …This coming week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington must put the Ebola crisis front and center. If the presidents of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone decide to stay home, it will be virtually impossible to do so. Other African countries must also pledge quick and effective responses if cases occur within their borders. We are at a critical point, and the response by the international community and the affected countries will determine if this outbreak is just a chapter in the region’s story — or a dramatic and dangerous shift in West Africa’s future” (8/1).

“…Public health interventions have made major progress in fighting TB, with incidence rates significantly declining since World TB Day was first observed 32 years ago. However, much more needs to be done to achieve a TB-free world. … The elimination of TB worldwide will only be successful if community, regional, national, and international partners from all sectors of society join resources and collaborate to implement life-saving solutions. This will require providing development assistance to low- and middle-income countries, prioritizing the eradication of TB in high-income countries, and investing in the discovery of new treatment and prevention strategies. Eliminating tuberculosis is not only a humanitarian imperative, but it is also an economic necessity. Without intervention, TB will continue to devastate lives and communities around the world” (8/1).

“…Part of the problem [regarding child marriage] has been a lack of documentation and evaluation of existing programs to end child marriage, so there is little information available on what approaches work, and in what contexts. Governments and donors need to shift the way they work, by supporting the systematic monitoring and evaluation of such programs. That way, they can channel their investments to efforts that bring about real change, and actually end child marriage within a generation. Without this smart and comprehensive approach, by both national governments and international donors, girls, women, and communities will continue to suffer unnecessarily from the impact of child, early, and forced marriage” (8/3).

Washington Post: The next steps for Africa to meet its potential
Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general, and chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation and the Africa Progress Panel

“…Africa will only become a stable and vibrant partner for the United States, and the world, if it provides opportunities for all its people. This requires peaceful, stable, and democratic government. My experience has taught me that there can be no long-term development without security and no long-term security without development. Nor will any society remain prosperous for long without the rule of law and respect for human rights. That is the enduring lesson of the American experience that Africa should aim to emulate and that the United States should seek to encourage” (8/3).

Recent Releases

CDC’s “Our Global Voices”: Global Health Security in Africa: Collaborations Between CDC and African Partners
Thomas Kenyon, director of the CDC Center for Global Health, discusses the CDC’s partnership with African countries and how “African ownership will be central and fundamental in shaping the way the Global Health Security Agenda evolves worldwide” (8/1).

AIDS.gov includes a summary of blog posts and interviews with U.S. and other experts on the key issues discussed at the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014), held in Melbourne, Australia (8/1).

AIDS.gov: Breaking the Silence Around Global Viral Hepatitis
Jimmy Kolker, assistant secretary for global affairs at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), in recognition of World Hepatitis Day on July 28, discusses U.S. efforts to combat viral hepatitis (8/1).

UNICEF: A letter from UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake on the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week 2014
Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, discusses the importance of breastfeeding in recognition of World Breastfeeding Week, which takes place August 1-7 (8/1).

WHO: WHO statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee concerning the international spread of wild poliovirus
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement regarding the second meeting of the Emergency Committee, which discussed the status of the spread of polio since the WHO’s declaration of polio as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May 2014 (8/3).

Humanosphere: Visualizing progress against tuberculosis
Katie Leach-Kemon, policy translation specialist at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, discusses findings from a recent study published in The Lancet on tuberculosis, highlighting the way in which data visualization can show progress against the disease (8/1).

WHO: Bulletin of the World Health Organization
The August 2014 WHO Bulletin includes an editorial on the 2014 WHO conference on health and climate change, news articles on climate change, and several research and policy papers on various topics (August 2014).